


Mask

by sunset_oasis



Series: Love of the Serpents [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 18:44:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10577253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunset_oasis/pseuds/sunset_oasis
Summary: She carefully constructed her flighty blonde persona that made every single one of her housemates thought she was harmless, while secretly vowing to herself one day she’d climb above them all.  There was just one person who wasn’t fooled – Blaise Zabini.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
> A/N: I've always wanted to write something about a ... slightly darker Tracey. It's an interesting prospect XD

_One day_ , Tracey thought coolly as she easily pretended to gasp in surprise and envy at Pansy’s exquisite green dress as the Slytherin girls tried on the dress robes they order for Yule Ball,  _one day I’m going to conquer them all_.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Pansy preened, unaware of Tracey’s inner dialogues. She whirled around in front of the mirror, the ends of the dress flying slightly. In all honesty, Pansy was rather beautiful, easily the most eye-catching girl in their dorm, with many younger Slytherin boys having a crush on her and Draco Malfoy on her arm often.

Tracey nodded, still putting on a very convincing in-awe face. “You look  _amazing,_ ” she gushed.

Pansy grinned, pleased, and then eyed Tracey’s dress, which was comparatively cheaper to Pansy’s, a little condescendingly. “Well, I suppose your dress is  _okay_.”

Tracey rolled her eyes inwardly, but faked a blush, “Well, it’s not that I could wear that amazing dress as well as you do, I haven’t got the body for it.”

Pansy’s face lit up in delight.  _Flattery always worked so easily_ , Tracey thought.

 

* * *

 

Four years Tracey’d survived the Slytherin dungeons and even generally well-liked by her peers, especially for a halfblood like her. Sure, most of her housemates were still a little prejudiced, more than a little aristocratic, and probably thought themselves better than others, but they didn’t really feel the need to kill all the muggleborns or halfbloods.

They just –

well, they just believed themselves to be superior, to be better, and felt  _generous_  and bloody  _proud_  of their open-mindedness for accepting those with less pure blood into their precious magic school, Tracey supposed. They were nice enough, though condescending and unnecessarily pitying at times.

Pansy and Draco and their gang likely thought she should be grateful that they’d sort of taken her under their wing, like some charity case or pet project. She suspected it was their way of showcasing to the other houses that they were not prejudice or something. But she could feel that they never really let her into their inner circle, if she had an opinion her vote wouldn’t be as important as theirs when making a group decision, she was just a charity case, after all - she was astute enough to discover that early on.

Of course, she never showed any signs of realizing that in front of them. She gushed with gratitude when they displayed their generosity (for the sake of feeling generous probably, she thought), she giggled along when the girls gossip about the fit boys, and she feigned just the right amount of adoration around the boys and let them help her, silently analyzing every one of them.

Most people fell for the flighty blonde persona she carefully constructed, and pretending to be in awe of them and flattering were both as easy as second nature. She might be bitter and sarcastic in her mind, but she hid in well enough.

In front of most people.

 

* * *

 

Blaise Zabini wasn’t ‘most people’.

Daphne would give her overly prized presents and waved easily when Tracey mumbled her gift for Daphne wasn’t nearly as high-class, she would smile kindly (and, maybe a little patronizingly too), and tell her it was okay she understood - given Tracey’s family background. But don’t worry, this was just small money for her.

Theo would gave a small sigh as she pretended to frown at her potions essay helplessly and magnanimously offered to help, and she would ask a few easy questions and nodded along as he explained stuff on a spare parchment, while secretly memorizing that titles of the Dark Arts books he set aside on the table. Sometimes people were more relaxed around her, less cautious, probably thinking she wouldn’t be perceptive enough to notice most things anyway. (In their defense, she did pretend to not to notice anything.)

But Blaise Zabini –

His eyes were always sharp when looked at her, as if suspecting there was more to her than the innocent mask she wore. He didn’t sigh indulgently or smile patronizingly, he didn’t preen or got easily delighted at her compliments.

In short, he frustrated her, as much as she didn’t want to admit it.

It was easy to be fake politeness, admiration, friendliness to the others. It was easy to be pleasant to most people even if she was rolling her eyes at their undertone condescension. It was easy, because she felt some sort of victory in fooling her housemates who thought themselves cunning. And, at the very least, even for the people who didn’t pat her on a head like a little pet or whatever, they never considered her to be more than just a silly little halfblood, an air-headed blonde. They didn’t regarded her with cool analyzing eyes that made her worry she’d been seen through. Wearing her mask in front of these people was effortless.

She smiled at them and secretly gathered a large amount of knowledge and useful scandals that floated around the Sltherin common room and thought about how she would find some way to climb above all of them one day. She could fake a sincere smile towards anyone - they didn’t always smile back, but they certainly believed she was genuine.

And it annoyed her that there seemed to be one overly suspicious person who didn’t fell for her carefully curated persona. She wondered if she should just ignore it - but then she couldn’t resist the challenge.

 

* * *

 

“Save your mask for those who believe it, Davis,” Zabini rolled his eyes as she pretended to flirt awkwardly at him. She’d decided to go with the route of having some kind of crush on him, and while Tracey was certain most guys would buy it, Zabini merely dismissed her practiced act - and oh Merlin did she practice, she spent so much time in perfecting this and even tested it out on a few others.

“Mask?” She frowned in confusion. Or at least, she  _hoped_  it looked like confusion.

Zabini smirked, “Oh, you play the daft blond persona well, I’’ll give you that. Talented actress you are.” He raised his quill slightly in mock salute.

She could just stick with her story to the end, but by now she was certain Zabini wouldn’t believe it anyway. After a quick contemplation and a glance around the library to make sure no one was nearby, she dropped her act. Her previously wide-eyed, innocent expression morphed into a shrewd gaze and the whole atmosphere surrounding her seemed to change, as her smile adoration turned into one with subtle viciousness.

Zabini smiled, his eyes glinting with appreciation – no one had ever smiled at her like that – with  _appreciation_. “I like your cunning look better. Feline. Smart. Sexy.”

“You’re the first person to say it,” she said drily, casually sliding into the seat beside him with much more grace than she’d usually have when she was around others.

“It’s not like most people have a chance to see it, do they?” He smiled wryly. “By the way, what’s your grand plan?”

She stilled for the quickest moment before instinctively flashing an innocent and confused expression at him, “Um, excuse me?” Belatedly, she realized that switching back to this deceitful persona would be an admitting that she was lying.

Blaise Zabini was apparently on the same train of thoughts. His smirk widened and she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Come on, you’re so very Slytherin, despite some of our housemates’ doubt about it. You’ve got to be planning something ambitious under that innocent and silly facade you hope to fool others. Which, of course,  _did_  fool plenty of people. I’m smarter, of course.”

She snorted at his arrogance, and he laughed. “If  _Malfoy_  say he’s smart you’ll be hiding your snort and fawning over him, won’t you?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, subconsciously being horrified at how she seemed to be so … truthful and genuine in her reactions in front of him, and then relaxed and  _tsk_ ed at him, “Well, Zabini, if you had been like everyone else, instead of acting like an annoying detective you are, you’ll be getting the adoration from me, too. It’s your own fault.”

“Back to last names now you weren’t trying to deceive me too, huh?” Zabini laughed again, his voice rich and deep, and she was alarmed by how charming she found him to be. She’d never considered anyone attractive before (not more than in an analytical way), because most people were too easily fooled by her standards, too condescending for her taste, or whatever. Handsome looks never meant anything to her, when she knew firsthand how appearances could be deceiving. She quickly pushed away her thoughts about how good looking he was.

“But back to the question,” he drew her attention back on their original topic, one she’d rather avoid but somehow there they were.

“Maybe I just want to protect myself as a halfblood living in Slytherin,” she shrugged, nonchalantly.

“Maybe,” he said agreeably, though she was plenty certain that he wasn’t buying it. He leant towards her, and she felt her heart stopped a beat, but her face remained normal.

“You’re smart, Davis,” he drawled, “surely it’s a great opportunity to get me involved – you need allies if you want to succeed, and it’ll stop me from revealing your secret were I involved.”

He wasn’t wrong, she knew. As much as she loathed to admit it even to herself.

“What do  _you_  get out of this?” Merlin, it sort of felt good to be openly scathing instead of hiding her scorn like usual.

“Sharing whatever success or power you’ll eventually end up with?” he offered with a shrug. “A smart partner?”

It would be foolish to turn him down, she thought.

Though probably equally foolish to find herself thinking about the word  _partner_  and hoping one day they might not just mean business partners or partners in crime but something more. Damn it, he hadn’t just already proven he was a hell lot more observant and sharper than the rest, but he was also witty and charming and bloody gorgeous that it was practically a sin.

She was going to regret this, she was sure of it. But on the other hand, she was probably going to regret it either way.

“Swear an oath first,” she finally said.

“Ah, don’t trust me, I see,” he smirked teasingly.

“Trust is such a fragile thing,” she said, sweetly, “wouldn’t you prefer our partnership to be based on something more solid?”

“Well said,  _partner_ ,” he laughed, this time with some fondness - and at that moment, she decided she was definitely going to make him her partner in  _more_  ways than one. And what Tracey Davis wanted, she was always successful in scheming a plan to get it - except for perhaps fooling Blaise Zabini with her mask.

Then again, getting Blaise Zabini himself, rather than getting him fooled, was probably not a bad compromise either.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr: ff-sunset-oasis.tumblr.com


End file.
